Thursday, 9 June 2016

Coverage of the US primaries

“Sanders
out-polls Trump by a lot and I think that voters are voting because
they have really desperate economic needs and they may well—even
Democrats may well select Trump if that is offered to them,”
American journalist Don DeBar says.

Supporters
of US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders may end up
supporting the presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump if they
are forced to choose between him and Hillary Clinton, an American
journalist and political commentator says.

Don
DeBar, a radio host and TV commentator based in New York, made the
comments on Wednesday following Trump’s call on Sanders’
supporters to back him up against Clinton in the race for the White
House.

Sanders’
campaign took a severe blow on Thursday after Clinton obtained enough
delegates to secure the party’s nomination.

“The
thing that I found most interesting was Trump suddenly becoming very
articulate; instead of rambling and sounding scattered and all over
the place, he made a very clear pitch to Sanders voters,” DeBar
noted.

Trump
tried to woo the Vermont senator’s supporters by touching on the
driving forces of his campaign, namely economics and unemployment,
the analyst said.

“He
delivered that like an experienced, polished politician and knowing
how the polls have shown Sanders voters not likely to vote for
Clinton, particularly that need work and need relief from their
college tuition and all of that, it is likely going to resonate among
many of them,” DeBar noted.

In
his victory speech on Tuesday, Trump made a plea to Sanders’
followers, who he said “have been left out in the cold by a rigged
system of superdelegates,” calling on them to support him.

He
also pledged to fix “the terrible trade deals that Bernie was so
vehemently against,” and replace them with “fantastic trade
deals,” something he said was not going to happen in a Clinton
administration.

Clinton
became the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee on Tuesday, after
defeating Sanders in six close primary contests, reportedly reaching
the party’s 2,383-delegate threshold.

DeBar
said Sanders still had a shot at nomination as Clinton had to secure
the superdelegate vote, which remains unclear until the Democratic
convention later this month.

But
in case the former first lady wins the nomination, he argued, there
is a great chance that Sanders’ backer will lean towards Trump.

“Sanders
out-polls Trump by a lot and I think that voters are voting because
they have really desperate economic needs and they may well—even
Democrats - may well select Trump if that is all that's offered to
them,” DeBar noted.